Fan Fare
Entertainment behind the scenes
William Shatner gives Sarah Palin a poetic sendoff
William Shatner has produced another spoken word gem, this time a poetic reading of Sarah Palin’s resignation speech as governor of Alaska. Shatner was on “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” on NBC on Monday night, and he sat down on a stool with a conga drummer and a bass player in the background, injecting dramatic flair into a paragraph from Palin’s speech, which included the words: “It is as throughout all Alaska that big wild good life teeming along the road that is north to the future.” (Video below)
NBC scored big when “Saturday Night Live” veteran Tina Fey lampooned Palin last year during the presidential campaign, and the network stands to get a lot more clicks on its Web outlet Hulu.com with this latest comedy piece. Now that Palin has quit as governor of Alaska, maybe she can work on her Shatner impression. It’s not that hard to do.
“Star Trek” trailer rockets past download record
Move over “Watchmen,” a new movie epic is getting all the buzz these days in Hollywood.
It’s director J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek.” Paramount Pictures said on Wednesday the new trailer for the film received a record-breaking 1.8 million downloads its first 24 hours after a March 6 launch at Apple.com.
A trailer for the film already played with the Nov. 14 release of James Bond movie “Quantum of Solace,” and at the time movie industry watchers said that some hardcore Star Trek fans would buy a ticket for James Bond just to see the trailer. So there is no doubt that ”Trekkies” are a passionate fan base, which helps explain the out-of-this-world download numbers for the trailer.
The Emmys: Hosts, hosts everywhere
For the 60th Emmy Awards , the show’s organizers made a bold decision to scrap the one-host format typical of awards shows.
Instead, they opted for not one, but five hosts — the five being Ryan Seacrest of “American Idol,” Heidi Klum of “Project Runway,” Tom Bergeron of “Dancing with the Stars,” Howie Mandel of “Deal or No Deal,” and Jeff Probst of “Survivor.” All were nominated for the newly-created category award for the best host of a reality or competition series.
William Shatner: Please, beam him up Scotty
Actor William Shatner of “Star Trek” fame threw out some verbal gems this week at a videotaped autograph session, as he recorded personalized messages to fans seeking autographs.
The story is linked here, but we couldn’t fit in all The Shat’s words of comic wisdom. So, not wanting it all to go to waste, we put it here.
Fans paid $149 or more to submit written questions or messages they wanted Shatner to read on video as he signed an autograph for them. He is doing it for a company in which he has partnered, Live Autographs.
One fan asked Shatner if there’s anything he wouldn’t do for money. “Sell my body,” Shatner said. “On the other hand …”
Then there were the misdirections, as fans wanted The Shat to say one thing and he said another. One family wanted the actor to record a phone message that said: “This is William Shatner asking you to boldly leave your message at the tone.”
“Thanks for asking me to answer your phone but I can’t do that,” Shatner said in his message. “Answer your own phone.”
Some of the messages Shatner was asked to read were too weird, and he wouldn’t follow the script. But some were just too serious. One customer wanted The Shat to record a birthday greeting for a fan that said, “For 40 years you’ve lived your life with morality and character. For the next 40 years I suggest you live your life in the same manner.”
That last sentence was too much for The Shat, who substituted “For the next 40 years I suggest you have some fun.”
When asked to impart some words of wisdom to a young girl, Shatner told her to grab her brother and “bite him on the toe until he screams, and then when your parents say stop, don’t.”
All in all, Shatner signed more than 200 items with videotape rolling.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis)
